Nigeria’s military high command said on Thursday that releasing casualty figures of Nigerian soldiers in the fight against terrorism and banditary would make Boko Haram and other insurgents happy and also embolden them.
Chief of Defence Spokesman, Major-General Paul Eneche stated this while declining to give statistics of casualties in the anti-terrorism fight on the side of the Nigerian troops.
General Enenche who was briefing Defence reporters on the involvement of the military –the Army, the Airforce and the Navy in 2020 also said reeling out such casualty figures would demoralize soldiers in the battle front.
The Defence Spokesman asked, “How will a soldier in the trenches in the North East feel, if you tell him that one million of his colleagues were killed”?
He said the terrorists’ camp would go into jubilation whenever they hear of such casualties on the side of the soldiers.
This development, he went on, would further embolden them to sustain their insurgency hence there was no need to give them such information.
Enenche urged Nigerians to also take ownership of the management of information about the nation’s fight against terrorists.
“We should take ownership of the management of information on security. It is not Entertainment. If it is entertainment we have come here for, oh no, I will tell you this numbers were wounded”, the number killed and those in hospital.
“Why should we empower our enemies? If I tell you those figures, we have empowered them (terrorists). That was what was happening for the first five years of this operation.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, I will refer you to all the figures I have given before. If it pleases you to go and tell the world about the number of casualties on our own side, the ones I have given you, go and add them up and tell the world”, he said.
He reeled out the successes recorded by the three arms of the military in 2020 and assured Nigerians that the soldiers would continue to defend and protect Nigerians from terrorists and bandits even at the expense of the lives of the Nigerian troops.
